October housing finance figures largely in line with expectations - Westpac

Matthew Hassan at Westpac presents his review on the Australian housing finance approvals, which dipped 0.8% in Oct, while investor lending rose 0.7%.

Key Quotes:

“The October housing finance figures were largely in line with expectations, the detail perhaps a touch better on owner occupiers but investor loans looking a little underdone.”

“The total number of owner occupier approvals dipped 0.8% in the month to be down 4.3%yr, in line with market and Westpac expectations of a 1% decline.
Ex refi though, approvals were up 0.9% after a similar gain in Sep.”

“The value of housing finance approvals to investors posted a 0.7% gain with Sep’s surge marked up to a 5.1% lift.”

“That is probably a little less than expected given markets in Sydney and Melbourne have shown a clear firming through Oct-Nov-Dec although the finance numbers are only to Oct so that effect could still be to come.”